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The Disciples of Confucius Premiere in the Sofia Theatre for Satire

The official premiere of Han Dinyin's play The Disciples of Confucius will be staged by prof. Snezhina Tankovska in the Sofia Theatre for Satire and Comedy "Aleko Konstantinov" on 13 March (Wednesday). The text is a compilation of three 1-act plays from the series Han Dinyin wrote, based on Lun Yu: "The three men and the Water", "What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others"and "The Rules of the Game", the intermedia "Chan the Fisherman and Li the Lumberjack", as well as a few Tang poems.

The Disciples of Confucius is a series of episodes from the Master and his disciples' travels in different parts of China, during which he preaches and propagates his views on the social and government structures, ethical norms and interpersonal relationships. The plays are alegories, closely related to the problem's of today. However, the characters are borrowed from the stylistics of the traditional Chinese opera. In a way they are similar to the characters of Comedia del Arte: Confucius is a moderate and wise old man, Zilu is an expert in different battle techniques, Zitu is a comedian and a boaster, the female character Qingran is pretending to be a man, because in the traditional Chinese opera the female roles are portayed by men.